Palm's 'other' smartphones delayed?
updated 08:40 am EDT, Mon March 23, 2009
Palm Delay Rumor
Palm's smartphones beyond the Pre may be delayed if a story in Taiwan's Commercial Times proves true. The company's believed contractor for two unknown smartphones, Compal, has reportedly pushed back shipments for the mystery devices from mid-year until the end of the year. A switch in components for newer, faster Qualcomm chips is said to have prompted the delay.
The delays are unlikely to include the Palm Pre. The American company's first full-touchscreen smartphone is purportedly being made by Compal rival Chi Mei and is using a 1GHz Texas Instruments OMAP processor that is already supposed to be one of the fastest phone processors available. It's unclear which if any Palm phones are affected, as the Centro and Treo Pro are already shipping and no new phones have been announced.
Nonetheless, any delay is potentially dangerous for Palm, which saw its smartphone shipments tumble year-over-year as buyers wait for the Pre. The webOS handset is Palm's central focus, but the company will still depend on its other phones for both the budget market (with the Centro) and for Windows Mobile (on the Treo Pro).
Additionally, the same Times leak claims that Motorola has scrapped the Alexander; the touchscreen QWERTY slider was to be one of Motorola's most important but would have been based on Windows Mobile, which will be kicked out for Android on most smartphone-grade Motorola devices in 2009.
